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Must Watch TV: Simpson and Bowles on Charlie Rose.

I've shared this elsewhere, but I'll do it here, too.

Everyone should take the time to watch this, or at bare minimum, listen to it. I think they're right and that the public, despite how we behave on the Internet, really does respond well to actual numbers and meaningful conversation.

Funny how a country with only two parties can't get anything done, can't claim I know how American politics work though. Some interesting stuff in there. Also a lot of uninteresting stuff like how whenever any name gets mentioned someone has to say what a stand up awesome guy that person is or one-liners like "I wouldn't bet against uncle Sam".

Funny how a country with only two parties can't get anything done, can't claim I know how American politics work though.

America has the most finely crafted political PR machines anywhere in the known universe. Rabid, professional politics types spin everything they can to try to influence moderate, time-strapped Americans who are generally less curious than they should be. It's the mechanics around politics that is now so efficient and smart that deadlocks the system.

‎"The world breaks everyone and afterward, many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."-Hemmingway

None of the budgets proposed so far seem to really be a solution. There's no motivation to tax the rich, reduce defense, and reduce Medicare.

So we're fucked. Just thinking about the huge amount of work that needs to be is alarming. There's no way that we'll come up with an adequate solution to this problem. The average American voter doesn't give a shit about the deficit. And the average politician will only kick the can farther down the line. It's pretty obvious where this is going.

There was an interesting article written by a guy who interviewed a Chinese civil service agent online the other day. The guy basically said that nowadays the Chinese view US-China relations as a zero-sum game, where one country's fate and success is indirectly tied to the other's. Right now the Chinese are extremely optimistic in regards to their future because of our polarized politics and huge deficit. The civil servant said that America's greatest enemy is itself

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‎"The world breaks everyone and afterward, many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."-Hemmingway

None of the budgets proposed so far seem to really be a solution. There's no motivation to tax the rich, reduce defense, and reduce Medicare.

Well, Simpson-Bowles proposed a lot of remedies along those lines, so of course both parties wouldn't touch it with a 40-foot pole. But it was, at least, proposed...

The guy basically said that nowadays the Chinese view US-China relations as a zero-sum game, where one country's fate and success is indirectly tied to the other's. Right now the Chinese are extremely optimistic in regards to their future because of our polarized politics and huge deficit.

That sounds like a pretty short-sighted view. China depends on the US to buy it's goods (though they're working toward more domestic consumption) and they invest in us. They may be happy on some foreign policy issues if our Government is paralyzed, but economically I can't see how they'd benefit if we implode.